State Senator Julianne Ortman held a press conference today to try and finger U.S. Senator Al Franken for playing a role in the current controversy over the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) giving unwarranted scrutiny to certain conservative 501(c)(4) groups.

In each, the Senators in question ask the IRS to scrutinize all 501(c)(4)s. Ideology doesn’t come up in either letter.

So, let’s sum up the argument here. Ortman is asking us to believe that the letters from 2012 which called for additional scrutiny to be applied to all 501(c)(4)s are significantly responsible for IRS misbehavior that began in 2010 and was actually uncovered and stopped after the letter was sent. Not even the reliable conservatives at Powerline are buying that one.

Why, then, would Ortman go to the trouble of calling a press conference to highlight this non-news with no real relation to her role as a State Senator? Oh, yeah:

Sources: Ortman meeting with GOP activists to discuss run for U.S. Senate against Franken. Tough race for Ortman…Franken has big $ lead.

The Chaska Herald reports that State Senator Julianne Ortman has requested an independent review of family court cases, processes and procedures in the First Judicial District, which Carver County is a part of.

Over recent months, the Lea Banken case has received significant media attention. Banken is involved in a custody dispute with her ex-husband Jeremy. Disputing the decisions made by Judge Richard Perkins, Banken has taken to the internet and started the site carvercountycorruption.com to document the proceedings in the case. The blog in itself has become an issue in the case, as the version of the site hosted here at wordpress.com has been effectively shut down.

The Banken case is just one of several cases that have gone through the Carver County family courts that have raised eyebrows among observers across the ideological spectrum. Ortman’s request, which is also supported by Carver County State Representatives Joe Hoppe and Ernie Leidiger is a useful step in ensuring public trust in the county’s courts.